Finally Athena Births Cria

Posted 25 April, 2008 in Alpaca Sales |

White Russian was born on April 23rd at 11:58 AM. It was not an easy birth…..I went outside at 10 AM to do the daily morning poop scooping. It was then that I noticed Athena was dialated as she lifted her tail while standing up from her kushed position. I called Tom and told him to come home. I ran around quickly picking up all the poop from the stalls while keeping an eye on Athena. Next I moved Carina and Armani out of Athena’s stall since I didn’t know how Armani, Carina’s cria, would react to the newborn. I then let Electra, maiden, in to watch the birthing and to keep Athena company.

At 11:06 Teena’s water broke and I could see the fetus presenting. It appeared to go smoothly at first with both feet coming out with the nose and head shortly behind.  However when the head and both legs were out I noticed one leg was shorter than the other. Around this time Tom made it home. I told him I believed the cria had an elbow lock, but that only 6 minutes had passed. If after 15 minutes the problem hadn’t rectified then I would lube up and go in. Sure enough I had to do just that. While Tom held Athena I was able to free the elbow.

We thought everything was going to move forward, but again we were wrong. Athena appeared to stop having contractions. I believe within the next 15 minutes she might have pushed two times only. The shoulders are the hardest to push out and I could see she was tired and beginning to stess. She was now lying on her side with her head up, but ears back. She was in distress. I again had Tom hold her and I lubed up some more. I was able to get the cria’s shoulder out. I stopped and waited again.

After 15 more minutes I just knew that Athena couldn’t do it. I would have to finish the birthing. One last time I told Tom to hold Athena and I gently pulled the cria out. Directly behind the cria was the placenta. I didn’t even get his legs out completely when the placenta presented itself. Poor Athena was now shivering and I had Tom place dry towels over her to get her warmed up. Her perineum was very swollen and she had small tears in the vulva that was probably due to my having to assist. Through the pain Athena was able to turn her neck to smell her baby.

White Russian is strong and alert. He was able to stand unassisted within 10 minutes and by the 7th hour was running around the stall. Mom, Athena, is doing well and healing nicely. She is learning to be a good mom. Nursing was new to her, but she has now gotten a hold of it.

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